One in five kids who regularly use the Internet get unwanted come-ons from sex perverts, a shocking new study has revealed.

And some computer-safety experts believe the number may even be higher.

But the group that led the study said the high rate of perverted solicitations is not the most shocking part.

“More surprising was how few youths and parents disclosed these things to anybody,” said David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center. The center conducted a phone survey of 1,501 Internet users – youngsters between the ages of 10 to 17 who went online at least once a month in the preceding six months.

Nineteen percent of children said they received at least one unwanted sex offer within the previous year – with a quarter of them saying they were distressed by the incidents.

Three percent reported aggressive overtures, in which the pervert made or attempted contact by phone, mail or in person.

Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or to give personal sexual information.

Most of the solicitations – 89 percent – occurred in chat rooms or via instant messaging, with just 2 percent via e-mail.

Girls and older teens were found to be most at risk.

New York lawyer Parry Aftab, who wrote a book about online safety for kids, believes the percentage of kids getting hit up by perverts is probably much higher.

“If you went online as a 13-year-old in a chat room or on instant messaging, you would be hit on, and almost always by an adult pretending to be a child,” she said. “These kids don’t know it’s an adult pretending to be a cute 14-year-old girl or boy. You can’t tell.”

The survey is also disturbing because soliciting minors over the Internet is a crime – a fact that has been widely publicized over the past few years.

Last month, a Connecticut Roman Catholic priest was busted for allegedly having explicit online conversations with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old boy.

The Rev. John Castaldo, a high-school spiritual adviser, was charged with attempted dissemination of indecent material to a minor – punishable by up to four years in prison.

The arrest was the latest in an ongoing sex sting in New York state that has resulted in 42 arrests and 35 convictions.

In April, a Florida rabbi, Jerald Levy, was charged with soliciting sex from a minor by Fort Lauderdale police.

The survey, conducted from August 1999 to February 2000, is to be published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.